“History was indeed controlled by blind forces, as well as character and courage and treachery and love. And accident and random chance. And stray bullets and telegrams and tips. And cats.”
-Connie Willis, To Say Nothing of the Dog
Time travel is a funny thing. It’s not real and yet so many of us wish it were. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve daydreamed about traveling to the 1940s. But since I can’t really time travel, I do the next best thing. I lose myself in a good historical novel or, even better, a book actually about time travel. I’ve read a lot of them. Some good, some not so good, and some so great it made me want to find a blasted time machine and head to the past.
I’ve often wondered what makes a good time travel story “great.” Any other novel, you would need what? Interesting characters, unique plot, an original author voice? Definitely, all of that. But with time travel, you need something else. Believe it or not, you need details. That sounds silly, doesn’t it? After all, time travel hasn’t been proven one way or the other by science. Details about time travel would be completely fictional, obviously. Yet an author who sets their time travel rules early in the story, sticks to them, and creates a believable atmosphere, can turn a good story into a great one. Well, that and some darn good writing to go along with it. Take, for example, the subject of this review. In To Say Nothing of the Dog, author Connie Willis does both brilliantly. Not only is her time travel believable, no matter how vague the science behind it is at times, but her writing is sharp, clever, and outright funny.
Published in 1997, To Say Nothing of the Dog is a classic time travel novel about the details that shape history and the chaos of Time itself. It is also a comedy of errors, a Victorian farce, and a mystery with a side of romance. The story begins in the ruins of Coventry Cathedral just after the Luftwaffe raid on the city in 1940. Ned Henry, a historian from the future, is searching the rubble for something specific: the Bishop’s Bird Stump. He’s been sent there by Lady Shrapnell, a loud and bossy nouveau riche bent on recreating the Cathedral just as it was when her ancestor visited it in 1888 and had a life changing event. Unfortunately, Ned has already been on a dozen other history trips looking for the bird stump and all that time travel catches up to him. While searching the ruins, Ned begins to wax poetic about minutiae, particularly dogs, and is unable to distinguish words and sounds. He has what is known in modern times as “Advanced Time-Lag.”
Sent back to his own time of 2057, he is put on strict bedrest. Knowing that Lady Schrapnell will never let him rest, Ned goes in search of Professor Dunworthy, head of the History Department at Oxford. He finds Professor Dunworthy in his office arguing with another historian about a fan or a cab, Ned can’t quite make it out thanks to the time-lag. What he can make out is that the other historian has brought something through the net (Willis’ time machine), which isn’t supposed to be possible. In an effort to fix the mess, Professor Dunworthy decides to send Ned back with the object. It will also be a good place for Ned to take a much needed break after he’s returned the object. Thanks to his advanced time lag, Professor Dunworthy reasons, Ned should fit in with the Victorians perfectly. What could go wrong?
Everything, as it turns out.
Ned travels back to Victorian England and promptly makes a mess of things. After mistaking Terence St. Trewes, a flaky Oxford student, for his contact, Ned embarks on a lazy boating trip down the River Thames with Terence and his sweet but curmudgeonly bulldog, Cyril. Along the way, they run into Terence’s mentor, Professor Peddick (“a real Oxford don!”) and Ned’s real contact, the same historian Professor Dunworthy was arguing with in his office. Her name is Verity and she is staying with Lady Schrapnell’s ancestor who had the life changing experience at Coventry Cathedral, a spoiled brat whose very fitting name is Tossie. After some confusion, Verity fills in the blanks on Ned’s mission and her own. Not only does Ned have to return the object Verity accidentally took through the net, but he also still needs to find the Bishop’s Bird Stump and keep his new friend away from Tossie or it will change the future forever. As it always does in time travel stories.
What follows is an intricate and amusing story about the chaotic will of Time, which is just as much of a character as Ned or Verity or even Cyril. You see, according to Ms. Willis’ time travel rules, one insignificant thing, a missed train or a chance meeting, could change the course of history. But Time has a corrective plan and it doesn’t share info, like the built-in safeguard called slippage. If it doesn’t want you messing with an important event or if it is trying to course correct, Time will send a historian back 3 days later or to another location. No one, Ned tells us early on, can even get close to Hitler or Ford’s Theater. The historians in Connie Willis’ books know that history is a mess thanks to the slippage on their jumps and can take corrective measures. The same goes for bringing objects forward. Time wants nothing of significance brought into the future and will shut down time travel if someone tries.
It’s these small details that make the time travel of To Say Nothing of the Dog compelling. There’s no Grandfather Paradox to worry about and no way to kill Hitler. It’s simply predestination. The historians believe that history has happened a certain way and their job is to observe and not interfere. But if something they’ve done, such as bringing an object through the net, disrupts history, then they must work to set things right. It’s all very Quantum Leap. Willis’ science is sketchy but once her time travel rules are established, she stands by them and builds her world and characters around them.
Ned and Verity are both likable as the modern historians thrust into a Victorian mystery. We see the story through Ned’s confused eyes and solve the mystery of the missing Bishop’s Bird Stump with him. (Although, in all honesty, I didn’t really figure it out myself. But that’s okay. I hate knowing the outcome ahead of time!) He is as reliable a narrator as his Advanced Time-Lag state will allow. The secondary characters are all distinct and amusing in their own way. Haven’t we all met someone as clueless as Terence or as bratty as Tossie? I’m sure that we have. Ms. Willis even gives the animals personality. Cyril, the dog, being my personal favorite.
The humor in To Say Nothing of the Dog isn’t bust a gut funny. It isn’t even slap your knee funny. The humor is in the situations the modern characters get into because of their modern-ness; it’s in the way the Victorians frustrate the moderns with their own quirkiness; it’s in the way Time itself messes with the historians. Even though the plot seems simple enough, find the bird stump, return the object, save history, there’s so much more to it. Ms. Willis creates an intricate story, weaving unlikely events together to get us from 1940 bomb ruins to the consecration of the new Cathedral in 2057.
To Say Nothing of the Dog isn’t true science fiction. Its future is much like our world today, only there’s time travel at Oxford. It’s more of a lazy boat ride down the Thames. It has somewhere it wants to go, it just wants you to enjoy yourself while it gets there.
Maura Goode
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